Monday, April 06, 2009

Geocaching in the news...

Geocaching becomes popular adventure

With terms even Harry Potter would love, geocaching is becoming one of the hottest high-tech games in the world, and it has made its way right into Marshall County.

Geocaching is a treasure hunt for which anyone armed with a Global Positioning System unit can participate.

The idea is to locate hidden containers, called geocaches, that are placed somewhere outdoors. Longitude and latitude coordinates pinpoint the location. Other adventure seekers then hone in on the item, or benchmark, to discover the prize.

Caches can be hidden in anything from an old ammunition box to a discarded coffee can - anything waterproof - and contain various items such as pencils, small toys or trading coins with names. They can be found anywhere along bike trails or public places such as GrimesFarm and city hall.

Once the item is found, the hunter signs a log book and returns the container to its original location.

Afterward, participants may go to on Web sites like geocaching.com or iowageocachers.org and share their experiences. Anyone can enter a postal code or address and explore the caches in their area and beyond.

There are currently 761,834 active geocaches world wide and hundreds of them are literally popping up across the state. People of all ages are becoming part of this phenomenon due to a sense of environmental and community support.

Marshalltown's Convention & Visitor's Bureau and the Marshall County Conservation Board are local organizations that participate in the cache-finding missions. In fact, the Girl Scouts have recently added a geocaching badge to their list of merits. Individuals can also set up cache boxes onto their property or another location with permission.

"There are quite a few people around town that do it," said CVB Director Shannon Espenscheid. "It's something neat that anyone can do, and it's a great draw to Marshalltown as far as visitors."

No longer a muggle or non-geocacher, Amy Mills, assistant with the Marshall Economic Development Impact Committee, has become quite savvy, locating nearly 140 caches on travels to places such as Indiana, Illinois and Minnesota.

"When we visit the Twin Cities, we'll stop along the way just to find caches," she said. "It's the excitement of having the coordinates in your GPS system and finding things. We became fascinated with it and my grandkids just love it."

Hand held GPS units may be purchased at various electronic stores or online with an average price of $100.

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Geocaching

Geocaching is a high-tech treasure hunting game played throughout the world by adventure seekers equipped with GPS devices. The basic idea is to locate hidden containers, called geocaches, outdoors and then share your experiences online. Geocaching is enjoyed by people from all age groups, with a strong sense of community and support for the environment.

Welcome!

This used to be Marc's NBA Blog but since I didn't keep up with it the way I would have liked to (Have I kept up with any of my other blogs like I wanted to? Just not enough hours in the day.), I have decided to change it to one about Geocaching.